


Twisted Fortune

by Stardustdragon123



Series: Warped Fate/Twisted Fortune Continuity [1]
Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard, selector infected WIXOSS
Genre: Alternate Universe, Multi, Ships Later On, Starts before G NEXT (but will contain spoilers to it and G:Z to an extent)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-16 06:41:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13048590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stardustdragon123/pseuds/Stardustdragon123
Summary: After discovering the game that he has now become a part of, Shindou Chrono and his new LRIG Aeon now fight together through these new Selector Battles to uncover the truth behind them. All the while, he is now forced to live a double life as both a Cardfighter and a Selector whilst keeping his new-found identity a secret to avoid attracting too much unwanted attention to his dilemma. But as he encounters more Selectors with their own struggles and even people he knows well being involved, he soon finds himself dead centre in the middle of a conflict between two certain girls and their beliefs. What will unfold from Chrono’s new adventures in these dark times?





	Twisted Fortune

**Author's Note:**

> Sequel to my two-shot Warped Fate on Tumblr (Read first to avoid spoilers; will post with a slightly revised part 2)
> 
> http://stardustdragon123.tumblr.com/post/151530784134/warped-fate-part-1-a-cardfight-vanguard-g-and  
> http://stardustdragon123.tumblr.com/post/151835608824/warped-fate-part-2-a-cardfight-vanguard-g-and

There was nothing about the lonely downstairs floor that afternoon to suggest that what could be strange and mysterious discussions of future plans would soon be spoken of. As silence remained present in the room, with the exception of the occasional small drip from the liquids within some of the glass containers that were scattered across various pieces of furniture, a girl with black hair and pale bluish eyes who wore a smart black school uniform sat a table, not ushering a sound. Her tentative but somewhat patient expression exhibited that she was expecting someone to meet her at this place.

Out in front of her on the table she was seated at lay a single card, containing another girl in a dark green dress, having hair in a lighter shade with an accessory attached to it with the darker shade and her eyes were a yellowish like colour. To most people, she would be nothing more than a solid printed image on the card with nothing else special about her. But to the kinds of people the person carrying her had encountered so far, they knew better. They knew of her true identity as an LRIG and in the case of her user, a Selector. It was these identities that the seated girl knew why was here in the first place.

“You did well today.”

Upon hearing the voice that had congratulated her in his presence, the girl turned around from where she was seated to face the other side of the room, where she saw a tall boy with smart clothing of his own as well as also having black hair, but with whitish eyes instead, approaching the table from where she was currently sitting. She turned back around and remained silent for the moment, just as he eventually walked up to the table and took a seat of his own on the opposite side.

“You shouldn’t feel so gloomy,” he spoke in almost a cheery tone of his own “It appears that you may have greater potential than I could have ever hoped to have encountered.”  
“Potential is nothing without conviction,” the girl spoke in a blunt manner “It appears ‘some people’ have yet to learn from that.”

“My, as cold as ever, Chinatsu-chan,” the boy replied in the same tone, with almost a hint of smugness to it “But, I trust that this job I have bestowed upon you has been to your satisfaction?”

The girl, addressed as Chinatsu simply nodded without another word, remaining almost completely silent as she did so. The LRIG from within her card glanced up towards her with a slight hint of worry, unsure of why she was even feeling this way. Her Selector was winning the battles she desired and their performance together as of yet was not unshaken since their initial rocky start. And yet, she still couldn’t help but ask herself why it was that she was feeling this hint of uneasiness welling up inside of her.

“Actually, there is one optional favour I wish to ask of, if you are willing to accept it of course,” he continued, his tone veering into a more calm approach. 

He then reached into his blazer jacket for something before taking out his right hand to reveal a photo that was seemingly torn from a magazine or newspaper of some kind. The boy then handed it over to Chinatsu who gently took it from his left hand. She gazed upon it to see that the photo had been trimmed down around the person that was of this person’s apparent interest at this very moment. She didn’t know of this person, nor did her LRIG from not encountering him, but the boy in front of her did.

“Who is this?” she asked.

“That is Shindou Chrono,” he spoke “Being a cardfighter, he is somewhat of an outsider to Wixoss or these Selector Battles.”

“And what interest is he of to you?”

The boy then closed his eyes calmly as he began to explain everything in regards to his interest in Chrono.

“I am personally not a cardfighter, nor do I have any interests in the subject of Vanguard itself,” he began “But I must admit, reading about Chrono has intrigued me. The fact that he has apparently wandered here has most certainly made things interesting.”

“Then… you are saying this Chrono has become a Selector?” asked Chinatsu.

“That would be correct, if what I have heard is true,” he replied “If you have the opportunity, approach him for me. There is something about him that I need to confirm for myself. Oh and if he is one, don’t be afraid to battle him of course.”

“Naturally, Satomi.”

And with that, she got up from the table, picking up the card containing her LRIG as she did so. Chinatsu then turned away from Satomi, heading over towards the stairs that led out from the downstairs room of this building. After putting away the card, she briefly looked at the picture of Chrono that was handed to her moments earlier. Aside from what could be considered a rather strange hairstyle, she didn’t see anything initially special about him from the photo alone.

However, even she was more that intelligent enough to know that being a Selector out of millions of other people across Japan or even the world for that matter, was somewhat of a rare commodity. She had no idea why Satomi was interested in him, especially since at this point, he was only relying on spoken word and his own request to her to verify that he was indeed a Selector, despite being referred to as an outsider for his actual role as a cardfighter.

But nonetheless, she knew her own personal desire of participation within the Selector Battles for her own reasons could come into effect. And if what he said was true, perhaps Chrono would at least offer her a challenge that came to her own personal satisfaction. Putting away the picture in her school blazer, Chinatsu exited the room on her own accord to commence her search for the cardfighter immediately.

Satomi then smiled smugly as he sipped his cup of coffee that he had brought to the table earlier, seeing that whatever he had planned at this very moment beginning to work its way into effect.

“And so… the gears of fate turn forward,” he mused “Just what secrets do you hold… Peacemaker?”

“So he’s one of the people involved from ‘that’ event,” a female voice replied, seemingly from out of nowhere “We must confirm if the whispers of Gear Chronicle’s potent is the truth.”

The boy kept his eyes closed, his expression remaining somewhat unnerving as he gently put down his cup back onto the table, smugly sneering as he did so. With the assurance that Chinatsu would seek out Chrono for him and having possessed prior knowledge of his clan beforehand, everything was going according to plan.

-

The very next day, Chrono was walking on his way to a certain bridge that he was acquainted with on his previous walks around the city he lived in. As he leant on a fence that stood beside the riverfront in the late afternoon, he was busy contemplating over everything that he had been caught up with since his entry into the Selector Battles as he brought up a magazine that he had picked up after coming home previously from his battle with Hanna and Nanashi.

From what was already printed on the front cover, it was a magazine designed for the audience of the Wixoss card game in mind, no doubt a regular read for both strong players and most notably, Selectors who needed some material to look into what the heated competition within both the card game and the Selector Battles would lie ahead for them. But that alone was far from the reason that he had decided to bother to read in the first place. His mind flashed back to a conversation that he had with the Selector Hanna after their battle had concluded. He had emerged defeated with one fewer coin, leaving him in serious peril to his standing.

“Doctor Hanna, huh?” he murmured as he turned through the pages.

“I must confess though, her pattern of speech is rather strange.”

Chrono didn’t mutter a word in response, knowing that it was Aeon herself who had spoken out at this very moment. Although he knew that the place he was standing in wasn’t very crowded, he found it preferable to talk with her when he was sure that no one was nearby to overhear or worse poke fun at him for seemingly talking to himself. Before he could read the page he had flicked over to, he heard a familiar voice call out to him.

“Chrono-san!”

Turning away from where he was leaning from, he saw that a boy much younger than him had called out to him. Chrono smiled when he had recognized who it was.

“Taiyou!”

The boy Taiyou was much shorter than him, having brown hair in almost a bowl cut fashion and he also had dark reddish eyes. He smiled warmly as he came over to Chrono, feeling rather cheerful. The Gear Chronicle user knew that out of the friends that were not as far as away from him as Tokoha and Shion were, Taiyou was one that had always managed to lift his spirits.

“It’s been a while!” the young boy greeted before he then noticed the magazine in his hand, blinking for a moment “What is that you’re reading?”

“This…?” Chrono murmured as he showed the page that he was reading at the moment “Um… a friend of mine from Ikebukuro said to read into the column she wrote.”

Taiyou glanced down at the page which displayed a picture of the Selector in question that his friend had confronted earlier today.

“Doctor Hanna?” he pondered.

The younger fighter was slightly confused by the ‘nickname’ that she had at first before noticing further details of the Wixoss card game that were littered across the page, including depictions of several cards from the tips she had written for this column. He blinked for a moment before looking back at Chrono, sensing that he wouldn’t be reading into this without some kind of interest into the game itself. Though at the same time, it made him somewhat sceptical, given that he knew of his friend’s great passion into the game of Cardfight!! Vanguard.

“Easy,” the Gear Chronicle user said in slight exasperation “I’ll still always be a cardfighter first. It’s just that…”

“It’s alright…!” Taiyou interjected as he waved his hands in front of him for reassurance “It’s just that… I’m a little surprised you took interest in a different game. You know, since Shion and Tokoha…”

The air around of the two of them fell silent as they both immediately contemplated the fact that it was partially their friends’ absence that had initially led to Chrono venturing out to Ikebukuro in the first place, with neither of them aware at the time that it was that very decision that had landed him into the very situation he had now found himself in.

“Anyway, I actually met Hanna myself yesterday before I picked up this magazine…” he spoke, wanting to move the conversation along a little further “She might speak a little weirdly… but she’s really strong.”

“Wow…” Taiyou breathed “So you think you’ve found a way to keep yourself busy until school starts again next week for you?”

“You could say that,” Chrono replied with a smile as he scratched the back of his head.

As he was being lost in the moment, trying desperately not to let any word of Aeon’s actual existence or that of the Selector Battles that he was now caught up within, something suddenly sparked in the back of his mind. As he blinked suddenly upon realizing that sensation was his only coin now being affected by the time limit, he couldn’t stop himself from widening his eyes in slight shock.

“Chrono-san? What’s wrong?” asked Taiyou.

“I… It’s nothing to worry about!” he replied, biting his tongue slightly to hide his slight panic “I just realized I was running late to meet someone in Ikebukuro in a bit! I’ll catch up with you later!”

“O… okay then,” the Gold Paladin fighter replied, slightly dumbfounded and confused by the sudden exit of his friend “I’ll see you later!”

Chrono smiled back as he then hurried down a street until he was out of sight from Taiyou. Once that happened, his expression quickly went grim as he turned down to the entrance of a small alleyway and stopped to pick out both Aeon and the card containing his one remaining coin. Upon seeing that a small portion of the gold shimmer had faded away to black, he could only cringe slightly.

“Aeon, how much time do I have?!” he asked.

“From my observation, you have 6 hours approximately before the coin turns black like the one you lost yesterday,” she replied.

“You know, you’re really calm for the trouble we’re in now,” he muttered with a raised eyebrow.

“Focus on winning,” Aeon interjected with a slight edge to her calm tone “I’ll guide you to any nearby Selector I can sense.”

Nodding once to affirm her statement and that he did not need to be told twice about the circumstances, Chrono immediately stuffed both cards back into his jacket before hurrying as fast as he could towards the train station. He knew that time was running short thanks to his ‘screw up’ from his first battle and now, it seemed that the odds were against him more than ever. Deep down, the Gear Chronicle user felt guilty for lying to Taiyou, knowing that his friend had already been through enough trouble as it was in the past. But he knew that he didn’t want him to follow him too deeply into the subject of Wixoss at the risk of him encountering an LRIG of the Beginning and being roped into the same situation as he was in.

…

By the time Chrono had eventually reached Ikebukuro, his hopeful expression had already begun to drop as he searched desperately across the streets for any sign of a Selector to battle in the hopes of regaining one of his coins and preserving the one that was fading by the second. After only searching a portion of the city for about the last two hours, he knew that his trouble was much greater than he expected. Most of the people he expected to be candidates for Selectors, mainly around his age area and a little lower were not around and to make matters worse, Aeon had not been successful in her efforts in trying to track one that was nearby to their current location.

“Can’t you sense any that are further away?!” he exclaimed whilst hurrying down a mostly quiet street, ignoring the occasional odd stare thrown his way from some passerbys.

“For the fourth time, this is the limit of my range…” Aeon muttered “Stay calm and observe your surroundings more carefully.”

'Yeesh!' Chrono muttered in his thoughts 'Did my memories of how stuck-up Ibuki could be make some of her up or am I not seeing the picture here?!'

The Gear Chronicle user was so busy being lost on his thoughts that he wasn’t paying any close attention as to where he was running right off to, until it was too late.

“Eek!”

With a crash and a loud squeak, both he and the person he had bumped into had fallen right to the hard pavement. Upon opening his eyes and cringing from the pain of landing on the hard ground, he looked ahead and suddenly realized what he had just done. The girl in front of him that he had bumped into was one that he had passed by on the way back home from Ikebukuro previously, unbeknownst to him, as evidenced by her school uniform and her hair colour along with the ribbons that were in it.

“Hey… are you okay?!” he called as he got up and hurried over to her.

The girl groaned in pain for a moment, still reeling from the fall that she had taken before looking ahead to see that all of her cards had spilled out onto the pavement in front of her. Looking up to Chrono, she could see him offering a hand to help her back up. Although she was initially surprised, having only seen him once before, she kindly took his hand and he helped her back onto her feet.

“Sorry about that…” he murmured as he then bent down to start picking up the cards he had made her drop “I didn’t mean to run into you like that.”

“I… It’s alright, really,” she replied, picking up the other half of her spilled cards “I guess I should have seen you coming after hearing you.”

Chrono smiled kindly, relieved that he wasn’t in as much trouble with her as he had initially expected from his carelessness just now. Blinking for a moment, he noticed that something was familiar about her uniform from before. After looking down at her cards before handing them back to her, he could only ponder more on the subject that crossed his mind.

“You play Wixoss too…” he murmured “And that uniform… you go to the same school as Hanna, right?”

“You’ve met Hanna?” she asked.

“Yeah. We both had a battle,” the Gear Chronicle user replied “I lost to her though, so I’ve still got some rough edges…”

Upon hearing the word battle, the girl shivered for a moment, prompting Chrono’s sudden confusion as to her sudden shift in fear as she stepped back away from him.

“He’s actually become one Suzuko,” a voice echoed out “Shall we?”

Chrono suddenly blinked as he looked to the girl in front of him, finally realizing that he had accidentally ran into a Selector without realizing it. But rather than feeling relief that he had a chance to salvage one of his blackened coins, he could only look at Suzuko, noticing her scared expression as he realized that she was feeling hesitant to battle him in the first place. He did not want the chance to save himself to slip away, but not if it came at the expense of Suzuko’s current state being worsened.

“Hey… we don’t have to battle if you don’t feel like it,” he said.

“R… Really?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he replied “I can find someone else to battle with Aeon. What’s your name anyway…?”

“S… Suzuko. Homura Suzuko,” the girl replied as she looked down to her small watch “Eek! I’ll be late for school!”

And with that, the seemingly timid Selector hurried down the street in search for her destination in mind, not wanting to be late for class. Turning around briefly, she glanced back at Chrono.

“Um… Who are you…?!” she called.

“Shindou Chrono!” he replied “Good luck!”

Feeling a little better from getting to know Chrono a little more, Suzuko smiled back kindly before hurrying back to her school. The Selector still had no idea as to how or why he was caught up in this, especially after the initial suspicions that her own LRIG had of him, but she knew that he was also in the same mess as her and that she wasn’t feeling in the mood to battle him at all. The Gear Chronicle user brushed some dirt from his jacket as he watched the Selector disappear into the distance, knowing he had far worse ways of making a first impression to some people before. Feeling his pocket twitch slightly, he pulled out Aeon who seemed rather stern towards him.

“Why didn’t you battle her?” she muttered “You’ve only made your predicament more precarious than it already was!”

“Hey, if she didn’t want to battle, she didn’t have to!” he snapped “Besides… she said she has school to attend, so I’d be making things worse for her!”

“Her scenario is the exact same as yours,” the LRIG replied “Whether you wish to accept it or not, you must battle in order to survive.”

“I know that!” Chrono replied “But I’d prefer it if they were willing to!”

Huffing for a moment, he put away Aeon’s card and continued his search to try and find another Selector on his own. But as the next few hours continued to drag on, things were beginning to seem hopeless for him. Eventually as he began to run out of stamina from covering a large portion of Ikebukuro in the midst of his efforts, the Gear Chronicle user had no choice but to find a nearby bench to regain his strength. Staring at the card that held his only coin, now more than half blackened from the time that had passed over, he knew things were growing dire and that whether he liked it or not, he would have to challenge the first Selector he would come across.

Upon sensing Aeon’s presence trying to get his attention once more, he sighed deeply as he picked out the card from his pocket once again. Her expression hadn’t changed in the slightest as he had initially expected, no doubt still sour with him not challenging Suzuko and her own LRIG earlier in the morning.

“Look, if it’s about Suzuko, I get it!” he huffed “But we can’t just force people into battling!”

“You’re too sentimental.”

Raising an eyebrow at her statement, Chrono gazed at Aeon, listening closely to what she had to say to him.

“All of us are simply instruments in the laws of the Selector Battles,” she spoke “I am simply the LRIG to battle for you and you have to battle for your own good. If you are to escape with the 5 coins you need, you have to throw all those feelings aside and see everyone and everything before you as your foe.”

“Why you…!”

Before Chrono could curse out loud at his LRIG for her apparent lack of concern for the feelings of any Selectors they would encounter, her ear suddenly twitched as she turned around.

“In front us there!”

Standing up from the bench, he could immediately see someone was walking over towards him and if Aeon’s suspicions were indeed correct, this was the Selector that she had managed to sense successfully. The boy that was approaching them was much taller than Chrono, having short light brown and wearing an orange top over his pale light brown shirt.

“So there’s another one so soon…” he muttered in a mockingly bored tone of some kind “It would seem we’ve hit our luck after losing to that whimpering little bitch from before, right Guzuko?”

“Who are you?” Chrono asked, glancing at the boy and not trusting his tone for whatever reason.

“Ah yes, how ‘rude’ of me,” he replied “You may call me Sou. That is, in the brief moments that may or may not remain to you.”

He then immediately pulled out the card containing his LRIG from one of the pockets of his orange top and revealed her to the Gear Chronicle user. Guzuko had dark reddish coloured hair that ran down to the length of her shoulders with her eyes matching almost the exact colour as well as a black dress and a pair of red gloves. Upon seeing Chrono gaze at her, she bit her lip nervously to try and not let her nerves get the better of her.

“Hey Guzuko, get it together!” Sou snapped upon noticing his LRIG’s behaviour “I don’t want you trying to bail on me like before!”

“I… I’m sorry!” she cried as she bowed repeatedly in apology.

'So that’s his LRIG…?' Chrono murmured in his thoughts 'What kind of memories did he have for her to be like that…?'

“And as for you,” the Selector continued “I believe you were gonna give me your name… for the historical record.”

“Shindou Chrono,” he replied as he then revealed Aeon to Sou “And this is my LRIG!”

He gazed closely at the LRIG who simply kept a calm stare towards him, not fazed by his behaviour or the challenge that he would seemingly propose within the coming battle.  
“Hmm, not necessarily the best looking, but you will do,” he spoke “Fine then. I guess you know how things work already.”

“Of course!” Chrono answered as he turned around Aeon’s card as Sou immediately did the same with Guzuko’s.

As a small breeze whistled within the small isolated park that they were within, a new figure entered the premises unbeknownst to the two of them. That figure was the exact same girl who had previously noticed Chrono’s battle with Hanna from the outside view of the battle briefly. Now that Kiyoi had a proper chance to observe him from outside of the battle, perhaps that was the opportunity she was seeking to confirm the answers she wanted to a set of recent memories she had experienced months before she too was involved in these battles herself.

“Open!”

With both of their declarations set, the distortion to the battlefield that awaited them had finally been opened.

-

Once Chrono had regained control of his senses for the second time within this battlefield, he looked down to the table to see that in addition to Aeon, both his starting hand and Life Cloths were already set. Looking across to the other side of the field, he could see that Kou and Guzuko were seemingly ready to go as well as he sneered confidently towards him.

“Well it seems my sense wasn’t off today,” he boasted proudly “You have only one coin. So taking you out will just be easy as I expected.”

The Gear Chronicle user took no notice of his opponent as a creaking noise brought their attention to the ground far below the platforms they stood atop. He could see that each slot was adorned with a purple and black colour, much like before.

“So he has a black deck like Hanna…?” he murmured.

“It would appear so,” Aeon replied “You would be wise to remember your previous experience from your battle with her.”

Eventually after a short while, the roulette eventually came to a stop on a purple colour. This was enough to indicate that Chrono now had a slight advantage in deciding who would get the first turn of the battle to better plan out his strategies. Upon looking at his hand, he contemplated his options for a moment before making his decision.

“I’ll go first!” he called as he moved his hand over the right circle of his table, adding the top card of his deck to his hand “Aeon, grow!”

With a series of rectangular flashes, the LRIG’s appearance was altered slightly with the addition of the gear like structures now added to her wrists. She took up a defensive stance, knowing that her Selector could not wage an attack right at this point and that she would have to brace herself for a coming assault. Upon seeing that Chrono wasn’t going to anything else for the turn, Sou could only scoff confidently.

“What? That’s it?” he spat “Well, I can see why you’ve probably lost a lot of coins or just a plain beginner. No matter though, I’ll still beat you good! Guzuko!”

As a series of similar flashes changed up Guzuko’s appearance, also arming her with a sharp tipped spear, several cards landed into the SIGNI spaces of his table.

“Now, here I come!”

“I’m sorry!” Guzuko cried as she charged towards Aeon who stood defensively.

As this was happening, several purple flashes struck the LRIG and knocked her down, indicating that all of the attacks from Sou’s SIGNI had been successful without a hitch. Chrono could only clench his teeth as each of his first two Life Cloths turned over, with only the last one having a Life Burst available to him. The card that was named Code Tempo Amser shone brightly as the Level 4 SIGNI landed in his Ener Zone along with the other card Code Tempo Horatia.

“With the burst, I return Servant O to your deck!” he declared.

Sou simply kept his smirk as Servant O’s card moved towards the bottom of his deck as Guzuko held up her spear before thrusting it forwards towards Aeon. As the latter shielded her face with her arms, a bright flash came between the two as the black LRIG’s attack was immediately blocked, forcing her to retreat.

“So you had a Servant to prevent a three hit combo,” he muttered “No matter! I still have a huge gap in our fates!”

“This guy…” Chrono muttered. 'He summoned a Guard SIGNI to deal a second blow and he’s not worried about losing part of his defence?'

Aeon remained silent as she contemplated the situation in front of her as the Gear Chronicle began his next turn immediately.

“Grow!” he called as the LRIG’s appearance changed again, this time with her boots extending in length and growing in size slightly “And summon!”

After the growth was complete, he wasted no time in filling two of his SIGNI zones with two more SIGNI. He knew that as much as he hated to leave a space open due to the state of his hand and the limitations of the Level and Limit, he had to press on with what he had.

“Etty’s skill!” he called “Return Awaodoll to the deck and summon a SIGNI with -1 Level!”

“No SIGNI exists at Level 0,” Sou replied as his remaining SIGNI was shuffled straight into his deck “Not that I care.”

“Attack!”

As the wheels on Aeon’s boots revved up, a purple flash slashed past Guzuko as she cried in pain before the Life Cloth revealed itself as †Chucky†, Imitating Play which shone brightly as it and the top card of the Selector’s deck to his Ener Zone. A second slash struck the LRIG before Aeon was immediately upon her. Twirling around mid-air for a moment, she swung the heel of her right boot right into her opponent’s face with the wheel still spinning as Guzuko was immediately thrown back from the impact.

“Yes!” Chrono cheered.

Sou, not feeling concerned about the lead Chrono had managed to reacquire sneered deeply to himself as he placed one hand over one of the circles on his table, adding the top two cards of his deck to his hand. As another series of flashes enveloped Guzuko, altering her appearance slightly once again, he immediately refilled his SIGNI zones with more cards.

“Now then, vanish!” he declared in a crazed manner.

In an instant, both of Chrono’s SIGNI immediately were banished by the two black explosions that engulfed the cards before they both reappeared in his Ener Zone. A third explosion immediately knocked Aeon onto her back before Guzuko immediately appeared in front of her and slashed her with her spear.

“Chrono, it’s your turn now!” she called.

“Yeah, I know!” he replied “Grow!”

And with that, a brilliant white glow enveloped Aeon as more armour began to cover over portions of her dress. This time, a pair of rectangular shaped protrusions with vents of some kind were attached to her shoulder armour and the wheels on the heels of her boots had becomes the very heels themselves in her recent ‘evolution’. She gazed towards Sou’s table as she held out one hand, covered in a bright purple aura as one of his cards named †Chouhan†, Different Blood Play was immediately shuffled back into his deck. As Chrono stared at the table, he couldn’t help but wonder what his opponent’s strategy was.

'So far, he’s just been throwing SIGNI at me…' he murmured in his thoughts 'Does he and Guzuko have something planned?'

“Now isn’t the time to be hesitant,” Aeon replied “This battle has only just begun.”

The Gear Chronicle user nodded once as he began considering what options he could use for the coming turn and everything that had happened to him throughout this day.

'I may not agree with what Aeon said about Suzuko or any other Selectors like her, but here, she has a point… I need to win here or who knows what’ll happen to me when that coin turns black!'

As this continued on, further down from where he and Sou were standing on a larger platform was Kiyoi herself. On the small ledge that acted as a fence of some kind, stood her own LRIG. She had blue hair with a portion of it wrapped into a ponytail on the right side, bright whitish blue eyes and wore a two piece dress. The Selector herself kept a close eye focused on Chrono and Aeon, as an image from memories past began to somewhat overlap with the Gear Chronicle user’s LRIG.

-

'Seven months ago…'

After waking up from the ‘strange’ dream she had seemingly had after falling to sleep against her will, Kiyoi had decided to head straight to the source of the light itself, wondering if she would find the answers she had demanded to seek at this point.

'Who is responsible for that light?' she murmured in her thoughts 'And why did it make me see Sakaguchi as if it were really her…?!'

Having departed from the train station earlier, feeling that was going to get her as close to it as possible from where she had previously woken up from, she immediately headed out towards the waterfront. Stopping by a fence that kept her away from the large river running beside it and underneath the bridges strewn across, There, she could see it at last as the giant column of light she previously saw in the distance from Ikebukuro was now only a mere few kilometres from where she was standing.

As she was about to venture out towards it, a series of voices immediately caught her attention as she scanned the area, trying to find who they belonged to.

“This is the answer I obtained after searching for a way to make the world one with Vanguard! I will protect the world with just one image! The image of a perfect future!”

Upon hearing those exact words, Kiyoi glanced up towards the top of the column, just in time to see a large dark red mechanical being resembling some of the shapes of a tiger, charging its energy as it crackled violently around it. In front of it and right above her was the very image she would later compare Aeon to in her present day scenario. That being the very form of Chronojet Dragon who stood on the defensive in preparation for the attack that would be coming towards it.

“I’ve only found one path and this is it!”

As soon as the voice concluded its declaration, the giant tiger like being unleashed a giant bright red swirling beam towards any obstacles that were in its path and it was only then did Kiyoi realize from the sheer size of the onslaught was that she was right in its path. As Chronojet Dragon stood its ground, Steam Maiden, Arlim immediately threw herself a mile or two in front of both Chrono’s avatar and the Selector herself as she deployed her shield immediately.

“Perfect Guard!”

Now it was Chrono’s voice that spoken out as the giant red beam was deflected away from his unit and the bystander of the fight, straight up into the depths of space and barely missing the object that was generating the light she had come to investigate. As the beam dissipated, from atop one of the skyscrapers came a large humanoid jackal bearing similar features to the unit that had just attacked Chronojet Dragon. This time, a green flash saw the appearance of Uluru who deflected the attack with ease.

Kiyoi knew that in her search for answers that she would not find anything out of the ordinary, especially given the power that light had to make her see the ‘dream’ that she desired. From what she could make out, the first figure from the voice alone and the aggression he declared with the tiger unit’s attack that he mentioned a Perfect Future. She couldn’t help but ponder about what that was and if her ‘dream’ just now was really just a Perfect Future that she had desired.

The Selector then continued to watch as the fight progressed onwards, watching Chronojet evolve and more units appear onto Chrono’s side of the battlefield as he went on with his counterattack. She did not know why such creatures now supposedly existed before her eyes, but if Chronotiger Rebellion’s previous attack was anything to remember by, these same creatures were very much real and that the two voices she was hearing were the ones commanding them.

After listening more closely to the ensuing argument between the two voices, regarding the sacrifice of the Planet Cray for the sole purpose of a ‘fake’ Perfect Future by forcing everyone to sleep, the other voice that Chrono addressed as Ryuzu had finally had enough. Chronofang Tiger vanished as a large golden golem descended from the very heavens itself, carrying twelve different coloured gems on its back which illuminated brightly shortly afterwards. The golem that Ryuzu named Demiurge threw all of its might into a single attack that was blocked by a great defence of units from Chrono followed by a successful guard from a second attack.

-

Upon finishing her reflection of those events up to that point, Kiyoi kept her gaze on Chrono and Aeon, now seeing a connection between both the two of them along with the very creatures she saw beside that light, responsible for showing her that ‘Perfect Future’ on that day. She knew not why he was now involved in the Selector Battles themselves, given the true nature behind them that she knew of once before, but if he was involved in fighting against the first voice she heard him address as Ryuzu back then, then there had to be a reason that he was caught up in this very struggle.

But despite fitting more of the pieces of the very jigsaw that was the gap linking him between now and then, there was still answers that she wanted and at some point, if he was successful in defeating Sou and Guzuko, she would confront him for those answers and uncover his reasons for what happened then and why he was here now.


End file.
